Kanyakumari was just a few hours away from Kovalam, the venue of 2015’s hackbeach, that I() decided to plan a day trip to visit the Southernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent. We toyed with the idea of taking a cab like a friend of ours did but in the end we opted to take the Island City Express to travel the roughly 3-hour journey. This was turning out to be quite a low cost trip thanks to the company I had. One of the concerns I have with solo tripping is that it does burn a hole in your pocket if done for short periods of time.

Tip: To get to the station from Kovalam, you have to choose between a rick (tuk-tuk), cab or the bus.

So we caught the train around 12:30 and reach Kanyakumari by 15:00. We were staying at Vedanta – Wake up and since it seemed closeby we decided to walk there. As we walked to our Inn, we got our first taste of the multi-ethnical, multi-cultural town of Kanyakumari.

After a brief break, we decided to head to the tip, where the action seemed to be; the sea shore. The Triveni Sangam is one of those rare places where you get to see the “meeting” of 3 bodies of water. This incidentally also means that at Kanyakumari you can see the sun rise from the sea and set into the sea as well. However the weather was gloomy and we did not get to see the sunset.

There is a Gandhi Mandapam where his ashes were kept before immersion. This is really a huge empty building populated in some parts by lovers.

As it grew darker we decided to explore the shops around and man! were we in for a surprise. The busy market was full of LED lit shops selling wares for Rs. 30, Rs. 20, etc. Entire shops dedicated to a single pricepoint.

We headed back to Vedanta to sleep early so that we could wake up to see a sunrise.

Unfortunately, the morning was just as gloomy and the crowds that had woken up with the hope of seeing a sunrise had nothing to do. Some of us walked down the stone jetty to the far end and sat down to take in the calmness of the morning but there were people selling watery tea and trying to con people into buying ‘pearl’ necklaces. There was this one guy who haggled with a family and brought down the price from 200 to 20. Later on in the market, I overheard another seller trying to sell similar necklaces to foreigners for $100. I wonder if anyone falls for their tricks.

When we got back we could see that the line to visit the Vivekanand Memorial snaked through the bylanes of the town and the memorial had not even opened yet. So we decided to skip it since we wouldn’t be able to make it back to Trivandrum in time. But we had plenty of time to kill, so I decided to go for a stroll along the coast.

Being from a coastal town, I felt surprised to see the amount of construction and development done to commercialize the shoreline and provide people a place to sit and see the ocean. The roads too were well maintained and the streetlights bright.

Finally it was time to go. We headed back to the train station and waited for the island city express to start.

The birds created convoluted patterns in the sky, as the students sat on the lawns absorbing into their souls that this magical night was the end of their journey.

Three years.
These three years that came at the right time.
These three years where we grew up.
These three years made us who we are right now.
These three years full of stories and people.
These three years that we needed.

The first time I heard of Varkala was probably way back in 2011, when we were in chennai and trying to decide what could be our next trip post Pondicherry. We never ended up going for it then and when I was planning a list of places to visit in 2015, I tried to include it.

The Diwali extended holiday seemed right for a trip down south and so it began with me flying to Trivandrum from Bangalore on the 11th of November. In hindsight, I should have tried the train from Bangalore.

Tip: A cheap way of getting to Varkala from Bangalore is taking the 16526/Island Express which leaves at 8:00 PM and reaches the next day around 12:00 AM.

Now that I landed in Trivandrum, I had to figure out a way to get to Varkala. The internet spoke of buses from the airport to the city and the city to Varkala but I was told that they are not very frequent and the train is my best option. So after getting to the city for which I paid a rickshaw ₹ 150 to ferry me, I bought myself a ticket to Varkala. It cost ₹ 30 to get to Varkala in a crowded general compartment (the Island express on its way back to SBC) full of the afternoon crowd. Once there, I just took an auto after non-aggressively haggling to take me there for ₹ 80. My return trip cost me ₹ 70.

Vedanta Wake up! was where I chose to stay in Varkala. I had tried Vedanta earlier this year at Kochi and was quite satisfied with what they offered. Vedanta, though is located a bit away from the beach but not too far so it still is a good choice for solo travellers.

Tip: Go for a morning walk along the cliff walkway and the beach, you will get to see fishing boats casting their nets. Walking south takes you to quiet beaches, walking north takes you to the black sand beach.

I spent just a day out here but I liked is so much that I shall surely return again. I had to head to Kovalam next, so at around 12pm I set out to the train station. I was told that there is an AC volvo and decided to take it instead since the train would take longer. There are no boards informing you of the bus, but luckily one did come along at 1pm, half hour later than what the local shop owner had told me. It cost me ₹ 92 to Trivandrum and the bus continued to go to Kovalam from there so I travelled on it for ₹ 32.

2015 was the year I realised that I now read non-fiction more than fiction. I also tried to buy a graphic novel a month this year and resolved to finish my backlog.

Though I was not successful at finishing my backlog I did get some really good books into my collection which I shall finish in 2016. Unlike those long lists out there, I am just getting back to reading. Here are the chosen ones.
Being Mortal: I loved his style of introducing his topic and keeping you interested through every chapter.

Do androids dream of electric sheep: One of the smoothest sci-fi stories which is bound to make you fall in love with the genre.

Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist: I do not know why i like the story, but I finally read the novel behind one of my all time favourite movies. Next up is Me, Earl and the Dying Girl.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories: Surprisingly my first Rushdie was a book written primarily for the child in you. Next up is Luka and the Fire of Life.

Modern Romance: A subject I would not have chosen to read upon but was a delight and reading it made me enjoy ‘Master of None’ even more.

What I talk about when I talk about running: Easily the best book i’ve read this year and the one I shall recommend and gift to people to read. You need not want to run to read this book.

The Hard Thing about Hard Things: Recommended by a lot of people, this book did not live up to its hype and Ben came across to me as a mighty lucky chap who is looking at things in hindsight but there were good things to be learnt from it.

The New Ghost: A short story about the afterlife with some great art.

By this Shall You Know Him: A short story about creation with some mind boggling art

In Real Life: A story set in the contemporary world of MMORPGs and questions ethics on the internet.

Killing and Dying: This anthology of short stories of people like you and me made it to bestseller lists this year.

Gaysi Zine #3 #4: A shoutout on the Kokkachi fb page showed me this wonderful zine and I ended up funding the #4. However I liked #3 better 😛

Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland: This tribute revival of the Winsor McCay comic strip was beautiful though I had bought this book thinking its the entire collection.

Prophet: Remission Volume 1: I bought this book because I am a fan of Brandon Graham. The story so far has been cryptic.

The Wrong Place: What a pretty watercolour graphic novel. Brecht Evans’ debut has a good story to go with the art but it ends up lacking something.

Chicken with Plums (reread): Because I was feeling like Nasser Ali Khan.

Antares Episode 5: I just love this series, the alien world’s Leo illustrates are fascinating.

The box sat there long after I had put everything else away. I did not know what I was to do with it. It had come to me along with the other boxes from the old house but this box was different. It was filled to the brim with notebooks of all kinds; big and small, fat and thin, square and rectangle. Most were unruled and some had square grids. Some were even within their original plastic packaging. They all had one thing in common and that is that they seemed to be unused.

I sat down beside the box and started to remove them one by one. Why were they empty and what was the point of having so many of them in the first place? What was the reason for their existence?

I picked one and ruffled through the pages. It was hand bound and looked exotic like it had been found in one of those kitsch stores. Nothing.

I repeated this action with every book in the box, hoping to find a clue to what they had meant to their owner, my father. But I found nothing. Nothing but yellowing pages sometimes riddled with bookworm holes.

I was meaning to update this blog with my travel diary posts but somehow I never seem to get myself around to doing so.

After I started working full time, I decided to use my earnings and start travelling solo. I set myself the target of covering 12 new places before 2015 ends. Its July now and I’ve finished 4 such trips. The first one was to Hampi and though it began as a solo trip, it ended up differently. Next was Kochi, to visit the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. I was not disappointed and this was my first truly solo trip. March saw me travelling to Jaipur to witness the wedding of two of my friends; Amrita and Roshan. I cancelled my Gokarna trip towards the end of March at the last minute but I intend to visit it later this year. The end of April had been set aside for a trip to the North thanks to the bridge holiday of Labour Day. I decided to head to Kasol and once there proceeded higher to Kheerganga. It was the most ambitious trip by far and ridden with uncertainties. That trip also dipped a lot into my finances and I had to skip the next month trip in order to recover.